The Editorial Team

Late to Fintech Boom, Nigerian Banks Turn to Regulators for Help

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigerian banks’ dominance of their home turf is virtually unparalleled. Largely protected by regulators from foreign competition, Nigerian lenders control 94% of their domestic market, by assets, the world’s largest share of local ownership after Israel, according to a report published before Covid-19 hit in 2020 by Chris Ogbechie and Lilac Nachum, scholars at Lagos Business School. But the threat is now homegrown. Nigerian banks are only now starting to counter…

Paris Club Seizes Pandemic Opportunity to Reclaim Lost Influence

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Like clockwork through the 1990s, Sufian Beker trekked to Paris to plead for cuts in Ethiopia’s soaring debt. As the war-torn country’s finance minister from 1996 to 2015, Beker had few options other than what’s known as the Paris Club, an informal group of wealthy nations that has bailed out governments from Argentina to Zambia. In 2004 he found himself again in the monumental French Treasury building towering over…

Absa CEO Exits After Reported Squabbles Over Bank’s Strategy

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JOHANNESBURG(Capital Markets in Africa) — Absa Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mminele is leaving South Africa’s third-largest bank following a dispute with other directors over strategy, ending a 16-month tenure just as the lender looks to bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis. The board and CEO differed on matters of “strategy and culture transformation,” the Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement Tuesday, without giving more detail. Financial Director Jason Quinn will step into the…

‘Crypto Dad’ Giancarlo Joins Board of Bitcoin Lender BlockFi

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Christopher Giancarlo, the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission who’s known as “Crypto Dad” for his early embrace of digital assets, joined the board of cryptocurrency lender BlockFi. Giancarlo, 61, headed the CFTC when the Chicago Board Options Exchange and CME Group Inc. first offered Bitcoin futures contracts. He gained tens of thousands of followers on Twitter after his February 2018 congressional testimony in which he advocated…

What is ‘Doge Day’? A push to drive dogecoin to the moon

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LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — A $1,000 invested in dogecoin at the start of the year would be worth over $68,500, based on MarketWatch’s calculation. It’s the day of the doge. At least, that’s how proponents of dogecoin have deemed April 20. Staunch supporters of dogecoin , which was created as a parody coin, a lighthearted rival to bitcoin, are aiming to push the value of the surging crypto to $1 on Tuesday, which has…

China Suspicion, ‘Foreign Plot’ Fears Hamper Africa Vaccine Plan

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LAGOS(Capital Markets in Africa) — As if the struggle to secure its meager supplies of Covid-19 vaccines wasn’t bad enough, Africa is now having a hard time getting people to take them. Only 5.22 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have been vaccinated, a region with a population of about a billion. From suspicions about Chinese-made vaccines in Zimbabwe and conspiracy theories in Ivory Coast about Covid-19 being “a planned event by foreign actors” to Somalia, where the Islamist…

African Bank’s New CEO Looks to Expansion After Hiatus

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — African Bank Holdings Ltd.’s new chief executive officer is looking at ways to accelerate a planned expansion from its roots in micro-lending to become a broader financial platform. Kennedy Bungane was hired to head the Johannesburg-based lender this week after Basani Maluleke resigned in January. The CEO’s appointment marks a return to the industry for the 46-year-old, who has spent the last seven years in roles such as running industrial-holding company Phembani Group….

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